1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an online shopping system, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information processing program recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to: an online shopping system in which products are ordered by users via terminal apparatuses, such as personal computers (PCs), mobile phones, etc., which can be connected to a network such as the internet, and the ordered products are delivered to the users; an information processing apparatus included in the same system; an information processing method for use in the same apparatus; and a medium in which an information processing program is recorded for performing the same method.
2. Description of the Background Art
Online shopping using the internet and the like has seen a sharp increase in the amount of product transactions in recent years. Such online shopping has advantages over conventional home shopping using magazines and television broadcasting (TV broadcasting), for example, in that users can obtain a great deal of information they need and, unlike shopping in a store, the users can have enough time to compare various types of products and consider a purchase without feeling constraint in front of a salesclerk. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of sellers, online shopping has an advantage in that, unlike conventional home shopping using magazines and TV broadcasting, no advertisement cost is required, and the number of salesclerks does not have to be as large as that required in a store, whereby it is possible to reduce operating costs.
In recent years, as typified by “i-mode” (a mobile internet access system in Japan), mobile phones have become capable of being connected to the internet to interactively exchange information. Therefore, it is conceivable that the amount of transactions via online shopping using mobile phones will be increased in the future. Further, with the prevalence of accumulated information distribution via broadcasting such as “ep” (a communication satellite digital broadcasting service in Japan), it is conceivable that online shopping using television sets, rather than PCs, as the terminal apparatuses, will be increased.
It can be expected that, as such online shopping progresses, the users will utilize online shopping for buying daily commodities. In such a case, if the users are charged with a shipping fee based on a conventional shipping charge scheme as currently employed in online shopping using the internet (e.g., the shipping fee is different in different delivery areas), it would be disadvantageous for the users to buy daily commodities since the ratio of the shipping fee to the entire product cost can be high. There is also a scheme in which the users are charged with a fixed shipping fee regardless of delivery areas. However, in the case where a product to be handled is large unlike a small item such as a book, unevenness in transportation cost cannot be equalized only by the fixed shipping fee, posing a burden on the seller. Accordingly, online shopping is believed to be unsuitable for buying daily commodities. Thus, in order to deal with an increase in quantity of daily commodities to be delivered, the seller is required to dedicate efforts to reducing the transportation cost.
One method for reducing the transportation cost uses a technique for standardizing sizes of containers used for delivering merchandise (delivery containers). By standardizing the sizes of the delivery containers, wasted space is eliminated from packing for transportation, thereby increasing transportation efficiency. An example of a conventional method for online shopping using such a technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-319106. This publication discloses a technique in which the user previously selects a delivery container and then selects products which can be delivered in that delivery container. This conventional online shopping method is described below with reference to FIG. 10.
When the user starts a procedure for ordering products, a container selection screen is displayed (step S101). The user selects any one of delivery containers displayed on the screen (step S102). Then, a screen for prompting the user to select a product type is displayed (step S103). The user refers to the screen and selects a product type to order (step S104). Next, information about products whose type is selected by the user is read from a server (step S105), and the maximum quantity of each of the selected type of products which can be stored in the selected delivery container is calculated based on the available capacity of the delivery container (step S106). At this point, whether or not there is any product whose maximum quantity is equal to or more than one is determined (step S107). If there is not such a product, the procedure returns to the product type selection screen (to step S103). If there is such a product, a selection screen for selecting individual products is displayed (step S108). The user selects a product and inputs a quantity (step S109). Thereafter, the available capacity of the delivery container is calculated based on the input (step S110), and the procedure returns to step S106 to recalculate the maximum quantities of other products of the selected type are recalculated (at step S106).
In this conventional online shopping method, however, the user is required to select the delivery container before deciding which product to purchase, and this is inconvenient to the user. This method also has a problem in that if there are too many types of standardized delivery containers, the user might not be able to select an optimal delivery container or it might take significant time and effort to select such a container. The conventional online shopping method is effective in the case where the number of types of both products to be selected and delivery containers is small, but is not effective in the case where the number of the types of both the products and the delivery containers is large.
In the online shopping system, generally, products are collectively procured and dispatched by a delivery center or the like, and in actuality, there is a closing time for ordering products. In the conventional online shopping system, however, information about the closing time is not clearly stated to the user at the time of ordering the products. This is because, in conventional online shopping, typically, it takes several days before the products are delivered to the user and the closing time is not much of a concern. However, in consideration of online shopping handling daily commodities, such as food, it can be expected that same day delivery will become widely available. In such a case, whether or not an order is placed in time for the closing time is very important.
Further, in general, information about a delivery source location from which products are delivered to users is not clearly stated to the users. Therefore, for example, some users, who use online shopping for the first time, have feelings of anxiety, e.g., “no product might be delivered after paying the charge”, “inferior products might be delivered”, and so on. Note that, in some cases, an online shopping system allows the user to locate a product by a cargo number after the product has been dispatched and obtain the telephone number, etc., of the delivery source location. However, no conventional systems clearly denote such information on the screen beforehand when the product is ordered.